The 1967 Topps cards were my starting point for baseball card collecting, and I had completed series 1 to 6 in 1967. The 7th series was not sold in my area, but I was able to obtain all but 5 (Seaver, Carew, Robinson, Wills, John) of those cards at card shows in the early 1980s.
In my opinion, this is the best looking series issued by Topps. -- 25-SEP-2009

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Tony Cloninger (#490)

Tony Cloninger was the Braves' top starting pitcher during their final years in Milwaukee. This was the era between Warren Spahn and Phil Niekro, when Cloninger led a rotation that also included Ken Johnson, Denver Lemaster, and Wade Blasingame. (Niekro wouldn't become a starter until mid-June 1967.)

Cloninger won 19 games in 1964, and 24 games in 1965. After winning 14 games in 1966, his career took a downturn. Oddly enough, while winning a total of 38 games in 1965 and 1966, he also led the league in walks and wild pitches in both years.

In mid-1968, Cloninger was traded to the Reds along with relief pitcher Clay Carroll and 2nd baseman Woody Woodward for pitchers Milt Pappas and Ted Davidson, and utility infielder Bob Johnson. His 3 1/2 years with the Reds was unremarkable, and he was traded to the Cardinals prior to the 1972 season. The Cardinals released him in mid-1972.

As a youngster in 1967, I would sometimes hear Tony Cloninger's name on the radio during Phillies vs. Braves broadcasts. I would also occasionally hear Tony Conigliaro's name mentioned, but it wasn't until late in the season (probably when I got this card) that I realized they were 2 different players.

Set description I posted in Zistle

The 1967 Topps set included 609 cards, the largest number to date. The cards had vertical backs, the first issued by Topps since the 1953 set. Topps used a color scheme for each team’s cards, but it was different than the scheme they used in ‘the ’66, ’68, and ’69 sets. Cards in the high-numbered 7th series are more difficult to find, due to limited distribution that late in the season.

Among the cards are 19 team cards (no Astros team), 20 manager cards, 43 rookie stars cards (down from 46 the previous year), 13 multi-player cards (from 11 teams), and 12 league leader cards. The World Series cards were also brought back, after not appearing in the 1966 set.

Notable rookie cards in the set are Tom Seaver and Rod Carew, as well as Rick Monday, Reggie Smith, Mark Belanger, and Sal Bando. The rookie cards for veterans Chris Short and Maury Wills also appear in this set, despite each of them having been in the league for many years.

Veteran players who had been in the majors continuously for several seasons (including 1967), but were not in the 1967 set were Lenny Green, Tony Horton, and Jay Ritchie. 1967 rookies with significant playing time who were omitted from the set include Gary Nolan, Don Wilson, Chuck Hartenstein, John Donaldson, Vern Fuller, and Bill Stoneman.

Significant errors in the 1967 set:The first Tigers Rookie Stars card had an incorrect player photo, which was corrected on a later card.The back of the White Sox Team card has the statistics for the Cleveland Indians.

Other quirks in the 1967 set:As mentioned above, there was no team card for the Houston Astros.Nine teams didn’t get a multi-player card, while two teams had two such cards.Standard team colors were not used on the Harmon Killebrew, Twin Terrors, and Sox Sockers cards.The final Orioles Rookie Stars card featured a red frame, while all other rookie cards had a yellow frame.All cards had facsimile autographs except for the Milt Pappas card.Bruce Brubaker had his own “solo” card, despite not having any prior major-league experience.